There seems to be no end to the Republican imagination when it comes to history and the Constitution. They invent one thing after another and hope the faithful believe it, which they always seem to do.
This time, they're fabricating reasons why Barack Obama should not be allowed to nominate a replacement for the late, unlamented Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Their very quickness at inventing pure hogwash is a wonder.
I look forward to Obama's nominee. Whoever it is is bound to be an adult, which is what our country needs more of in positions of responsibility.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Religion is not the root cause of our problems.
Religion is not inherently evil, just wrong.
Religion gets a lot of attention for causing murderous strife in our world, and it is, to be sure, probably the one difference between groups that we get most riled up about. But, at root, our problem is that we are so easily riled.
People talk a lot about the immense distance between humans and the other animals; I think we don't look enough at our similarities. Our brains seem to have evolved incredibly quickly, but other aspects of our animal nature have not changed so much. Our survival has depended on recognizing the "other" and defending our territory for ourselves an those we recognize as most like ourselves.
Our rational brains tell us (well, some of us) that it is possible to live and prosper without the constant need to murder each other, but our instincts and emotions have more influence on us, often, than our brains. Our ability to create technology that is many times more powerful than our own bodies has complicated matters by enabling us to multiply the rate at which we can kill each other. Instead of using our thinking capacity to devise ways to live with each other, we use it in service of our animal drives.
Religion is, indeed, one of the things that most divides us, but it's really the present nature of humanity that is at fault.
I don't argue that we ought to become less human; only that we should rely on our brains a little more than we do to work out our problems.
Religion gets a lot of attention for causing murderous strife in our world, and it is, to be sure, probably the one difference between groups that we get most riled up about. But, at root, our problem is that we are so easily riled.
People talk a lot about the immense distance between humans and the other animals; I think we don't look enough at our similarities. Our brains seem to have evolved incredibly quickly, but other aspects of our animal nature have not changed so much. Our survival has depended on recognizing the "other" and defending our territory for ourselves an those we recognize as most like ourselves.
Our rational brains tell us (well, some of us) that it is possible to live and prosper without the constant need to murder each other, but our instincts and emotions have more influence on us, often, than our brains. Our ability to create technology that is many times more powerful than our own bodies has complicated matters by enabling us to multiply the rate at which we can kill each other. Instead of using our thinking capacity to devise ways to live with each other, we use it in service of our animal drives.
Religion is, indeed, one of the things that most divides us, but it's really the present nature of humanity that is at fault.
I don't argue that we ought to become less human; only that we should rely on our brains a little more than we do to work out our problems.
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